Hungary and Kazakhstan will jointly develop multi-modal services for cargo transportation from China to Europe and from Europe to China by Trans-Caspian international transport route, Kazakh railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy said.

An agreement on this was signed between Kazakh KTZ Express company and Hungarian Rail Cargo Hungaria Zrt company as part of a Kazakh-Hungarian business forum in Astana.

The parties also agreed to create favorable conditions for freight traffic by this route.

For cargo transportation by Trans-Caspian international transport route it is planned to use technical potential of Kazakhstan’s border stations in Dostyk and Altynkol, infrastructure of transport and logistics centers in Astana and Shymkent, and multimodal complexes of Aktau and Kuryk ports.

In Hungary for cargo transportation by this route will be used border stations Záhony, Epereshke and Rail Cargo Terminal’s intermodal terminal BILK.

The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and then through Turkey and Ukraine to Europe.

The first test container train from China arrived at the Baku International Sea Trade Port on Aug. 3, 2015.

The agreement to create the Trans-Caspian International Transportation Consortium was signed in April in Baku by the railway authorities of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan. New competitive tariffs were introduced for the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route since June 1, 2016.